(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for controlling an in-line apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for controlling an in-line apparatus used for manufacturing microelectronic devices such as thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs).
(b) Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a complete conventional in-line apparatus used in manufacturing TFT-LCDs.
The conventional in-line apparatus comprises a plurality of sub-apparatuses (LOADER, AP1xcx9cAP5, and UNLOADER) and controllers (CTRL-L, CTRL-1xcx9cCTRL-5, and CTRL-U), the controllers controlling each of the sub-apparatuses. As shown in FIG. 1, the sub-apparatuses positioned sequentially (LOADER, AP1xcx9cAP5, and UNLOADER), which perform predetermined jobs for each substrate of a TFT-LCD, performs the jobs on the workpieces such as substrates, when they pass through the sub-apparatuses continuously.
In a single unit apparatus, since a controller controls only the single apparatus, overall control is easy. Also, communications between the single apparatus and devices that control the apparatus are relatively simple. Finally, the reliability of the transferred data for such communications is high.
However, in an in-line apparatus, the data exchange between the plurality of sub-apparatuses themselves, and also between the sub-apparatuses and the devices that control the sub-apparatuses is complicated. The reliability of such data exchange is also low. Further, since data are only transmitted in a direction from one apparatus to a subsequent apparatus, it is difficult to control the sub-apparatuses bi-directionally.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for controlling an in-line apparatus used for manufacturing microelectronic devices such as TFT-LCDs, in which information between sub-apparatuses is shared to allow easy overall control of the in-line apparatus, and in which the reliability of the in-line apparatus is improved.
In order to achieve the purpose of the present invention, an in-line apparatus system comprises a plurality of sub-apparatuses, each of which sequentially performs a predetermined job, a host storing information on a substrate to be processed in the sub-apparatuses and information on jobs to be performed by the sub-apparatuses, a plurality of apparatus controllers, each of which controls the jobs to be performed on the substrate by the sub-apparatuses according to the information on the substrate and the information on the jobs, and each apparatus controller sharing the information on the substrate through connections enabling data communications, and a master controller that is connected to the apparatus controllers to control the apparatus controllers. The master controller receives information on the jobs processed by the sub-apparatuses from the apparatus controllers and transmits the information to the host, and to a corresponding apparatus controller the information on the substrate and the information on the jobs received from the host. The master controller and the apparatus controllers are configured with programmable logic controllers.
The present invention, also discloses a method for controlling such an in-line apparatus system.